Imagine starting a new year of high school, but all of your prior friends are disgusted by what you did in the summer. You don’t know if the reason they hate you is because of the fact that you called the police in the summer or for something else than just the drinking part of the party. You are the only one who knows why you called the police nobody else knows because you choose not to tell them. The reason you do not say anything is because that moment ruined your life, ruined your mind, ruined your voice, ruined your brain, ruined your appearance and everything else that can be ruined got ruined. In the novel Speak,Laurie Halse Anderson takes the reader into the life of Melinda Sordino, a girl lost in a high school world of identity crisis.
The theme in "Speak" is all about identity; Expressing identity and not having one. An example is Heather who has an identity but it is hidden because she is trying to fit in. I understand why her identity is being hidden though because she is at a new school and does not have any friends yet. The only friend that she had was Melinda but that friendship got lost and then somewhat regained. The friendship got lost because Heater tried fitting in with a new group of people and then started having their identity so she also dislikes Melinda to fit in with the rest of her group. When that identity goes wrong she crawls back to Melinda. Around Melinda Heater actually has an identity and she is a preppy girl thhat wants to do everything the right way but also needs help from other people. The help that she needs is pretty much help fitting in but that does not work out. The main theme of "Speak" is to not try and fit in but to be yourself and not to change your ways.
Along with her ideas on identity the author uses symbolism to fully develop what is happening. Her room is a symbol of this because it is a mix of all of her previous friend’s rooms and none of it really shows her personality if she even has one. Next, the couch in her family room that they do not eat off of represents that her family is trying to look perfect. Really they do eat on this couch and they flip it's cushions upside down just like when her parents are fighting the couch cushions are suddenly flipped to the messy side metaphorically. Also, the school mascot changing all the time represents the lost identity as well. They cannot make up their mind just like Melinda who cannot make up her mind about who she wants to be.
Another one of the many symbols in this book I think is one of the most important is her lips. The thing that is happening with her lips is they are all scared and have soars and are chapped like crazy. Melinda is the one who is doing all of this to herself. This is the one kind of pain that she can control. Nobody else is making her lips hurt, it is her and she can control what hurts and when unlike her broken heart. She may not even notice that her heart is broken but I can tell. She does not have friends to talk too or anybody to believe in her, to support her.
The other most important symbol is the closets. The first closet is her own and she goes in there to get away from everyone and everything that’s not good in life. The same thing happens with the closet that she found within the school. In that closet she ditches class just to get away from what the former friends say is wrong with her and them being so mean to her.
Melinda is an interesting character who has a reason not to speak. She has no friends that like her any more as she says she is "Outcast" as in the only outcast in the entire school. I do not believe her that she is the only outcast because in a school you never see one outcast you see a group of outcasts that are kind of friends but really just need one. Also because Melinda has told lies before so why would she be telling the truth? Melinda sees herself differently than everybody else. She does not want to look in the mirror because Andy Evans raped her and she did not tell anybody. Every time she looks in a mirror it reminds her of this and she has many flashbacks throughout the story. Melinda has one friend who is the new girl. She gets really mad at Melinda because Melinda is always depressed and doesn't want to even be alive. Melinda wants to be popular and that is why she went to the party and drank and then did not know what Andy Evans was doing but only knew that she was attracted to him and wanted to have a older boyfriend to start the year. Also, Melinda says that judging people is mean and wrong but really she always judges people because she gives them nicknames like Hair women and more. Melinda also does not like to speak up after the incident happened and now her parents are finding trouble with this. When she finally decides to speak of it she tells the wrong person at the wrong time and she doesn’t say it she writes it. Melinda has many problems so far in this story.
Next, the boy that she calls IT is Andy Evans. Disgusting minded, abrupt, ludicrous rapist describe Andy Evans although he swears he did not rape anyone and that she wanted it as well although she really didn't. Andy Evan's does not have a good reputation and I can see why especially near the very end of the book. He is only dating younger girls because they are "Freshmeat" referring to what he called Melinda. Some people call Freshman that because they are new to high school and therefore very gullible which easily backfires if you look innocent like Melinda. Andy is going after the young girls because he cannot get one from his own grade and he just wants to do crap to them. Also, Rachel also called Rachelle dated him because he is older and tall and handsome and all the young girls want him besides the one who know his true identity. In the end there are many other characters but Andy Evans is by far the most hebetudinous character in a book I have read yet and he got me really aggravated in this book from beginning to end.
Now think about it this way as if you or a close friend was in the same situation as Melinda. Getting things done to her within her first year of high school. Would you tell anyone? Would you want to know if this happened to a friend? Personally I would've told the police and had him arrested so he couldn't come close to doing the same thing again. Despite the characters I liked the symbolism as well as the theme of identity in the book "Speak."
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